BUDGET 2026-27 : NA panel proposes 30 major changes to Finance Bill

• PTA to collect tax on imported mobile phones in instalments• Digital monitoring mandatory for manufacturers• Tax stamps, barcodes required for goods clearance• Duty waiver on aircraft, parts import• Zero duty on electric vehicles under $75,000, 92pc above 3000cc• SBP to create tax data repository

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance approved the Finance Bill 2026 on Monday after making around 30 major amendments that reshaped key tax provisions through revisions to rates, enforcement mechanisms, deletions and new insertions.

The amended bill will now be presented before the National Assembly for final approval, where a clause-by-clause vote will determine its passage. The Senate committee had earlier submitted 123 recommendations on the bill.

The standing committee finalised its report earlier in the day, which will now be placed before the National Assembly for adoption ahead of the final budget vote.

The committee proposed an instalment-based tax on imported mobile phones via the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s device system, alongside easing penalty structures, expanding exemptions, reducing tax rates for wholesalers, and revising the import regime for electric vehicles.

Several proposed measures were dropped, including changes linked to the petroleum levy, while new enforcement tools were added to strengthen compliance. These include digital production monitoring, faceless tax assessments and an algorithm-based settlement mechanism intended to resolve disputes without direct interaction between taxpayers and officials.

In customs laws, the committee introduced tighter administrative controls requiring board-level decisions to obtain ministerial approval and mandating competitive procurement under public procurement rules. It also reduced the limitation period from 10 years to 5 years and introduced safeguards requiring that affected parties be heard before orders are issued, except in urgent cases involving risk of asset dissipation.

The affected parties were also granted the right........

© Dawn Business